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Children learn through play. As an occupational therapist who works with children and youth, I use games and toys almost every day to help develop important cognitive, visual perceptual, motor, sensory, social, play and leisure skills. While many different types of activities can be used in therapy, this blog focuses on off-the-shelf games and toys that are accessible to most. Whether you are a therapist, parent, teacher, or a game lover like me, I hope you discover something useful while you are here. Learn a different way to play a game you already own or discover a new game for your next family game night. Either way, just go play. It's good for you!

The OT Magazine named The Playful Otter one of the Top 5 Pediatric OT Blogs.


Nov 4, 2018

Bizzare Builder Monster Parts

A monster-building kit with a pattern sheet.

A construction-type set for making monsters. Pieces are colorful and made of a hard rubbery plastic, with a little bit of flexibility to the small pieces. There are instructions for six different monster animals on a small sheet. Pieces per monster range from three to 12.


Pieces either push into holes on the body or you put a small peg (gray pieces in image above) between the hole in the body and piece with a hole. This set comes in six different themes: dinosaurs, robots, insects, wacky creatures, plants and monster parts (this one). I have read that the pieces are interchangeable between sets.

Try this:
  • Practice naming body parts as the individual works by cueing "Let's add the legs next. Now add the arms (antenna, wings, tail, etc)."
  • Cue the individual by part color if he has trouble following the guide.
  • Jumble the pieces, as in the image above, and ask the individual to look through them to find what he needs. 
  • Sort out only the pieces that the individual will need for his model. Hand them to him one at a time and let him look at the guide to see where to add them.
  • Hand the individual the pieces in the wrong orientation so that he will have to turn them, in-hand, to place correctly.
  • Ask the individual to hold the body in one hand while adding the pieces with the other, instead of leaving it sitting on the tabletop.
  • Let the individual make up his own monster and then describe it to you by body parts and/or color.  
  • Work on visual discrimination, visual closure, visual form constancy, manual dexterity, coordinated use of both hands, fine motor control, in-hand manipulation, executive functioning skills, process skills, play and leisure exploration and participation 


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